Two Xbox games from Chillingo earn their Windows Phone 8 compatibility at last

After today’s disappointing news of another week without a new Xbox game for Windows Phone, our gaming readers could probably use some cheering up. Well, I’m pleased to share some win-win information with you now. Not one, but two partially delisted Xbox games for Windows Phone have just become Windows Phone 8 compatible: Feed Me Oil and Parking Mania, both from Chillingo.

That brings the list of incompatible games down to 23, the lowest it has been since Microsoft’s new mobile OS debuted. Hopefully it continues to shrink in the months ahead!

Crude physics

The first newly-compatible title, Feed Me Oil originated back on May 8, 2012. It precedes the start of Nokia’s exclusivity agreement with Electronic Arts and thus is available to all Windows Phone users. Best of all, it only costs a dollar!

Feed Me Oil is a physics puzzle game that closely resembles Enigmo. The player’s job is to get a bunch of dropping oil into the mouths of various beautifully-drawn gigantic creatures. You’ll use a variety of gadgets to do so. Each one affects the oil in different ways, such as pushing, pulling, and otherwise directing its flow to the (hopefully) intended destination.

While the gameplay may be somewhat familiar to puzzle fans, Feed Me Oil’s creative art design (complete with cute intro) is far more appealing than many puzzlers’ sterile settings. The Windows phone version features several exclusive levels, making the low price tag even more of a bargain. Like many games of this type, the game’s Achievements can be rendered quite easy via guides, making it a quick completion for GamerScore aficionados.

Driving for dummies

The second title to gain compatibility today is the much more recently released Parking Mania, which came out on November 9th last year. While this one was initially available for purchase on Windows Phone 8 devices, it suffered from unavoidable crashing (no pun intended) on specific levels and got pulled just over a week ago around January 8th. In record time between partial delisting and relisting, Parking Mania has now been updated to version 1.1. We have it on good authority that the game no longer crashes on previously problematic levels, so woot!

Parking Mania is something of a puzzle/driving game in which players must carefully steer one or more vehicles from one destination to another. Levels usually end when all of the cars have been parked in the designated spaces. Complicating matters are extremely tight spaces, occasionally large and unwieldy vehicles to drive, road traffic, and of course: tilt controls. Parking Mania offers a tense but reasonably challenging experience across its 80 levels, providing much more enjoyment than you might expect from a game about parking.

Parking Mania costs $2.99, just like all Nokia exclusive Xbox Windows Phone games. You can view its Windows Phone Store page here, but the game must be purchased from a Nokia Lumia phone. We’ll have a full review soon!

I really wonder if it will be that many. Who cares about Microsoft games anyway? I'd be more interested what other publishers do regarding WP. Want to be first to get great games? I'd go for iPhone instead of Android.